Fashion victor? The politics of style

Arguments raged in France yesterday over who had "won" the war of words in the presidential TV debate. There can be no question who won the style war.

Ségolène Royal wore a dark blue skirt and jacket, and a white blouse with high white collar. She looked stunning: part headmistress, part barrister, part mother-of-the bride.

Related articles

• Royal redeems herself on TV - but it may be too late
• Leading article: An epic fight that brought politics back into fashion

Nicolas Sarkozy wore a dark suit, blue shirt and stripy tie. He looked like the manager of a provincial shipping company.

Mme Royal's "look" was something of a surprise. In recent days she has appeared in tailored, all-white suits, like a vision of purity and toughness; like a Joan of Arc, re-styled for the 21st Century.

One of France's foremost style gurus, Vincent Grégoire, commented: "During the first round campaign, [she] went through a brief stage of wearing different colours and styles, a black leather jacket, or a bright red suit. But she realised that that didn't work for her. She has mostly gone back to her characteristic white."

"She's now using it to demonise Sarkozy. It's like she's saying 'I am the light, I am an angel, a pure and fragile woman. He wears black. He is always dark. I am the future.'"

It may seem sexist to dwell on the clothes of a woman politician but Mme Royal has consciously used style as a political weapon. And why not? Female politicians need all the weapons that they can find.

Fashionistas say that Mme Royal has compensated for her often plodding campaign by creating a brilliantly balanced visual "image": part mumsy, part brisk business woman, part no-nonsense, part chic.

Could these subliminal messages make a difference in the final days? Mme Royal's presidential rival often wears very dark suits and ties, which make him look like a high-class waiter or a pocket-sized Count Dracula. Since many French people are worried there might be "something of the night" about M. Sarkozy, these are puzzling choices.

Mme Royal, 53, used to disguise her femininity behind large glasses and bossy, bright red jackets. In the past two or three years, she has deliberately transformed her appearance (or as the French now say "changée son look").

She had some work done on her once-prominent teeth. Her stunningly youthful appearance owes a little to mild cosmetic surgery - but only a little. Style commentators in France say that her greatest triumph has been her choice of wardrobe.

Mme Royal mostly wears "prêt-a-porter" clothes from quality high-street shops such as Zara, and especially, the rising French label, Gérard Darel. She avoids haute couture, with the exception of a couple of outfits from the French designer boutique, Paule Ka.

The critics have been impressed by the way that she has danced elegantly through the fashion minefield. She has, they say, created a perfect image for herself as at once modern and stylish and feminine and serious and thrifty.

M. Grégoire is manager of "lifestyle trends" for the Nelly Rodi "TrendLab" in Paris, a company that studies social and political changes and advises the fashion industry on the likely tastes of the near future.

He believes that Mme Royal has perfectly captured the elusive "zeitgeist", or mood, of the early 21st century.

"She's created a look for herself, a silhouette. It's something she's worked very hard on and yet manages to appear quite natural. She comes over as serious, but also very feminine. Someone who cares for the way she looks, but is not too fussy and buys her clothes within a budget. Someone who is ambitious, but at the same time ordinary," he said.

"It is this 'doubleness', this ambiguity, which I have been watching in Ségolène for several years. She has caught exactly what we are telling our clients is the new spirit of the times."

"The 1990s was about ambition, success, hard-things, masculine things. Now the mood has shifted to something softer, more human. People are still ambitious. They still want to get things done and be successful. But they are also more reflective, more caring. They worry about family things and they worry about the environment. It is this doubleness which Ségolène's look captures so well."

Mme Royal favours clean lines, never carrying a large bag or wearing an overly fussy outfit, M. Gregoire says. This helps her to seem tall when she is not. Her wardrobe consists of plain but tailored jackets , matched with well-cut trousers or knee-length skirts and softened by something subtle but feminine, like a knotted scarf, or a simple or homely accessory that might have been given to her by one of her four children.

Outdoors, she often wears long trench-coats which accentuate her slim figure, paired with a knee-length or shorter skirt and long leather boots. These symbolise authority and a readiness to compete with her male rivals.

"She has an attraction to a kind of military look, maybe because of her background [her father was an artillery colonel], but the overall effect is one of understated elegance, sensible without being too serious, and feminine without being too girlie," M. Gregoire said.

Laurent Darel, head of Gérard Darel, confirmed that Mme Royal is a frequent customer. "Too often in the past, the wives of political figures in France have felt the need to dress up in haute couture, something which - whether it suited them or not - took them far beyond the realm of what ordinary women, working women and mothers, could aspire to wear," he said. "By choosing to dress prêt-a-porter, Mme Royal is placing herself in the ranks of ordinary women with taste."

Politics cannot succeed on style messages alone. Mme Royal has disappointed many supporters and would-be supporters by the vagueness of her campaign. She is a tough, intelligent and sometimes very funny woman. These qualities - toughness apart - have not been consistently displayed by her supposedly unconventional, but often simply muddled style of campaigning.

All the same, she has defied many pundits and reached the second round of the elections, with 25.87 per cent of the votes, compared with M. Sarkozy's 31 per cent. The election will turn on whether a majority of the nation feels most "comfortable" with the idea of a "Sego" or a "Sarko" presidency. But the subliminal (and sublime) power of Mme Royal's "silhouette" may not be enough. The polls suggest that the decision will go to the managerial Count Dracula rather than the Woman in White.